It Always Starts with Detention
by eleanormary98
Summary: Both boys have been put in detention on Friday night, even though they're not speaking - it feels less tense than it has done in years. Will they be able to finally start a relationship after hating each other for so long? HarryxDraco **NONE OF THESE CHARACTERS ARE MINE, ALL OWNED BY THE TRUE BAE THAT IS JK ROWLING**
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1 -**

'Can you stop that please?' Draco was scowling at Harry. It was late on Friday night and both boys were stuck in the dungeons serving a detention for Snape.

'I'm not doing anything Malfoy.' Harry retorted – shifting his head on the table so he could look at Draco.

The pair had never got on at their time of Hogwarts, but since returning for their seventh year - now Voldemort was gone, they had decided to make a truce, so they could receive their N.E.W.T.S in peace and move on with their lives. The harmony had lasted about two weeks. The boys were made to pair up in potions and brew the draught of peace, they had argued about which order to put some of the ingredients in and managed to cause a small explosion in the process. Snape trying not to show favourites anymore, had given both boys detention.

'Your leg Potter! Your leg!' Draco snapped, pointing down to Harry's shaking leg. 'Please stop fidgeting your leg before I hex it off!' he moved his face back to facing the front of the classroom and sighed heavily.

'How is this affecting you? I can't help I'm fidgeting, I'm bored!' Harry groaned.

'Do you not think I'm bored too? I could be in the common room right now, spending time with my friends but no, I have to be stuck here with you - of all people, since you insisted on putting the frog leg in before the fresh leaves because for some reason you are incapable of reading instructions properly!' Draco refused to turn around to face Harry while he insulted him. Before Harry could respond, the dungeon door creaked open and Snape entered the classroom then swept past Harry and Draco.

'Even though I told you both that there would be silence in my classroom I could hear you squabbling from down the corridor. So, unless you would like to receive another detention with me, I suggest you be quiet. Now, I have some of the first year's homework for you to grade for me because I simply don't want to. I assume you bought a quill and ink? If you have any struggles and I pray you don't, you may ask each other but other than that no talking. Do you understand?' The boys nodded without saying a word – clearly not wanting another detention. Harry and Draco both reached for their bags to retrieve their quills while Snape dumped several pieces of parchment in front of them and quickly left the room again.

With a sigh, Harry picked up the first roll of parchment and saw that it was on the peppermint potion. 'Easy enough' Harry mumbled. The boys started marking in silence. The room was quiet, the only noise that was being made was the scratching of quills over the parchment and the sighs of Draco Malfoy. After 45 minutes of the boys marking Harry could no longer take it.

'What are you bloody sighing at every 5 seconds?!' Harry said sounding irritated which made Draco smirk.

'I just can't believe how stupid some of these students are, like come on they're getting the simplest things wrong! Have they ever heard of a book?' Draco was staring at Harry now and somehow Harry couldn't believe that he never realised how grey Draco's eyes truly were. Harry shook his head getting the sudden thought out of his head as quickly as it entered.

'Come on Malfoy, they're 11 – I'm sure you were just as stupid.' Draco gave a small chuckle to Harry's remark making Harry grin, he felt happy he had made Draco laugh – even slightly. Which confused Harry, he had never wanted to see Draco happy. Literally ever.

The boys went back to marking the homework for another 15 minutes before Snape entered the room again.

'You got through more than I thought you would. Congratulations – you're not as stupid as you look. You are dismissed.' Harry sprung up and started putting his quill and ink back into his school bag, Draco got up slower than Harry did but you could still see the excitement on his face to finally leave and spend the rest of his Friday night with his friends.

Once they had left the classroom, Draco gave a small smile to Harry and turned to walk to the Slytherin common room. For some reason, Harry felt compelled to say something to the silver-haired boy.

'Draco – wait.' Harry didn't know why he felt like he needed to call out to him. Draco slowly turned around to face the boy who lived with one eyebrow raised.

'Potter, did you just call me Draco?'

'Fuck, I guess I did, you know you can call me Harry, could be part of the truce? If you want anyway… Look I just wanted to say sorry for getting you detention with Snape – it probably was my fault.' Harry had his eyes glued to the floor, so he wouldn't see Draco's reaction, but he could still hear the over the top gasp that was coming out of his mouth.

'Did Harry Potter, just say to his arch enemy that he was wrong? Oh, how I wish someone witnessed that!' Draco started laughing and again it made Harry grin, which again – confused Harry. He waved Draco goodbye and headed towards the stairs when he heard quick footsteps coming towards him.

'Harry, wait' Draco said closer to Harry that he was mere seconds ago. Harry turned around to see the blond boy facing him, a small pink tinge on his cheeks.

'You did get the potion wrong – like really wrong, how you managed to pass you O.W.L is actually beyond me.'

'You're a prick.'

'Yeah, I know. Anyway, I thought I'd be nice and offer to help you… Like with potion work, I know you have Hermione, but it may be nice to work with someone new and not in your weird threesome thing.'

'I mean I'd call it a trio but okay…' Harry murmured 'Urm, let's do it. Monday? Meet you in the library at 7?' Harry couldn't figure out why he felt so nervous, it was just studying.

'Okay, sounds like a plan. Bye for now.' Draco was smiling this time, which in turn made Harry want to smile too, both boys turned to leave to their own common rooms and Harry felt like something good was going to become of this.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 -

'You did what?!' Ron shouted at Harry from across the common room, Harry had purposefully given himself some distance as he had a feeling that this was going to be Ron's reaction. The ginger-haired boy started pacing by the Gryffindor fireplace, shaking his head. Hermione had gotten up and was failing to get Ron to sit back down.

'Ron, I actually think this is a good idea, it really shows that both boys are trying and maybe everyone else should follow suit…' Hermione was looking at Harry with a small smile on her face. At least one of them was pleased about Harry's new study partner.

'Hermione no, we have to be logical here!' Hermione scoffed and rolled her eyes at Ron, Harry started laughing at the pair. Ever since the two of them had started dating it had seemed Ron had forgotten everything about Hermione. 'What's wrong with the two of us? Hermione has always helped us with homework and revising for exams!' Ron was getting grumpier by the second and Harry was doing his best to keep a straight face.

'Like I told you, Ron, he thinks it would be nice to have a bit of a change and some new help. Not that I don't love "the golden trio" but I think he's right. It would be nice to work with someone else, maybe you could work with Parkinson?' Harry was laughing again, imagining that pair sitting in the library together trying to do transfiguration homework. Hermione started giggling with Harry and soon Ron joined in too. All three of them were laughing by the dimming fireplace and Harry couldn't help but think how lucky he was to still have his two best friends by his side.

'Okay, okay, okay, I still don't like the idea, but I guess it couldn't hurt to try and be nice to the disgusting, lying, cheating Slytherins.' Ron grumbled while the other two were still laughing away.

'That's the spirit mate, now I'm going to bed – are you two coming or am I giving you some alone time?' Harry already knew the answer to his question and didn't bother looking back to the couple who were already back on the sofa. Harry climbed the stairs to the Gryffindor dorm rooms and got into his shared bedroom, the rest of the boys were fast asleep, Harry got changed quietly and climbed into his four-poster bed. He didn't realise how tired he really was and looked over at his watch. Wow, he couldn't believe it had already passed midnight. Harry shut his eyes tight and tried to fall asleep as quickly as he could, but he could only think of Draco Malfoy – sure Harry had stayed up nights before plotting against him, but this was different. Why was he thinking about his eyes again? How the steel grey colour sparkled with even the small hint of light in them. How he already had tiny crows-feet every time he had a smile on his face, which Harry thought was quite sweet. He couldn't stop thinking about that stupid smirk that he does when something goes his way or how he constantly plays with his silver hair, his hair looks so soft and Harry started wondering what it would be like to ruffle through his hair.

'Okay, get that out of your head. Like, now.' Harry said to himself.

He knew he was gay. He'd figured that one out from when he first kissed Ginny and felt absolutely nothing but Draco? No, that couldn't be a thing that he was feeling, it was all too sudden. Harry didn't even like Draco, sure their relationship was on the mend, but he didn't even think that him and Draco studying would last more than two weeks, an actual friendship? Wasn't going to happen. But still, Harry couldn't help but smile when he thought of the blond, which only annoyed Harry a little bit. Maybe they could become friends – it was too early to tell but Harry had defeated the Dark Lord he felt a little confident that befriending Draco would be a little bit easier than that.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 –

Harry woke up on Monday morning with a sense of nervousness he hadn't experienced for a long time. He still had a full day of lessons to get through, he didn't need to be nervous about being alone with Draco too. Throughout the weekend he was considering just canceling on Draco mainly because it felt like the whole of Gryffindor were making fun of him because of it. Everyone was confused like Ron had been about the point in becoming social with the Slytherins – their actual enemies. Harry had gotten bored of explaining repeatedly why he was trying to be friends with Draco on Saturday so refused to come out of his room on Sunday except for meals. Now the thought of having to deal with them again made his stomach twist. Harry shouldn't care – he knew that. He should be proud of himself for trying to merge the two houses together, god knows they need it. What's the point in having bad blood between Gryffindor and Slytherin?

'There's no point in having bad blood between them.' Harry mumbled to himself while he put his shirt on over his head.

'What did you say?' Ron was stirring from his bed and looked at Harry.

'Nothing Ron, hurry up I'm not gonna wait forever to get breakfast!' Harry threw a clean jumper at Ron's head then sat down to put his shoes on.

'Are you sure you wanna eat? You don't want to be bloated for Malfoy.'

'Ha – hilarious Ron. I'm literally studying with the guy for a couple of hours and then coming back here and numbing my brain playing wizards chess with you, okay?'

'Why can't you just skip the part where you sit with a prat for 2 hours and just play wizards chess with me?' Ron grumbled and wouldn't look at Harry properly.

'Please don't tell me you're jealous.' Harry started laughing when Ron wouldn't answer him. 'It's two hours and I'm trying to be nice – that is a thing I can be, nice. Now come on I want bacon.'

The boys waited for a short amount of time in the common room for Hermione and the three of them walked down to the Great Hall for breakfast. When they entered the hall, Harry scanned the room for Draco, when he saw that the wizard was already looking at him, Harry gave him a small smile and waved which Draco returned almost straight away.

'God, is that Malfoy actually smiling? How disgusting.' Harry shoved Ron jokingly and went to sit down with the rest of the Gryffindor's to eat his breakfast. While Harry was enjoying his fry up, Draco walked up to him with a lot less swagger than he usually had. Harry wondered if he was as nervous about their study date as he was.

'Potter.' Draco did sound nervous, which gave Harry a small sense of relief.

'Thought we'd agreed on first name basis but fine.' Harry said smiling, he got up to face Draco and found a small comfort in the fact that he was slightly taller than the blond wizard.

'Hard to break old habits I suppose.' Draco was smiling too. 'Harry, do you want to meet here tonight straight after dinner or just meet at the library?' he ran his fingers through his straight hair and Harry couldn't help thinking how cute he looked when doing it.

'Meeting here is good for me, I have dinner around 6:30 so is 7 still good?'

'7 is good, I'll see you later. I can see Pansy stropping in the corner of my eye.' Draco gave a small chuckle as he watched Harry turn slightly to look at the Slytherin girl who was visibly pouting and stomping her foot.

'Wow, does she remember how old she is or?' Harry said with a chuckle.

'No, I really don't think she does actually. Bye.' Draco turned around quickly and started walking towards the exit of the hall with Pansy walking quickly to meet up with him. Harry sat back down with his friends who were all staring quietly at him. Harry had barely buttered his toast when Ron spoke again.

'Sorry, first name basis – with that slimy git?' Ron had pushed his plate of food away, apparently too disgusted to eat. 'Honestly Harry what are you playing at?'

Hermione sighed 'Ron please, we talked about this. I'm sure everything is fine between the two of them, just let Harry be.' She shoved Ron's plate back over to him and he picked up his fork to start eating again. There was an awkward silence between his fellow Gryffindor's now and Harry wasn't a fan of this. Yes, it was a bit odd what Harry was about to do but it wasn't a bad thing. Everyone just needed to calm down, it didn't mean that Draco was going to start eating dinner with them and spending time in the common room. Harry had decided he wasn't going to explain himself to anyone anymore, he could do what he wanted and normally get away with it too.

Luckily, Harry didn't have to explain himself again – because no one asked. He was prepared to tell people to fuck off all throughout transfiguration and herbology, but no one mentioned Draco Malfoy again. He wondered if Hermione had talked to everyone else if she had he was very grateful for it. The rest of his lessons went smoothly, and he excelled in defense against the darks like always. Before he knew it, it was 6:30 pm and Harry was sitting between Ron and Dean trying to eat his beef stew. His nerves had picked up again and he really was thinking that Ron was right, that this was a good idea. Maybe this was all one big plot for Draco to get Harry alone and what? What would he do to him? Harry shook his head, he was just being paranoid for no reason. It was just studying, he might even learn something from Draco – anything was an improvement from Snape anyway.

'You ready to go Harry?' The sudden noise from behind him made Harry jump, he hadn't realised it was already 7. Time goes quickly when you want it to slow down. 'Sorry I didn't mean to startle you, are you okay?' Harry could hear the smile in his voice and couldn't help but smile too.

'I'm good, no worries. Let's go to the library.' Harry stood up and quickly grabbed his bag, ready to leave before anyone could say something that would make Harry want to hit them.

'Have fun you two, Malfoy have him back by 10 or else.' Ron said, laughing with the rest of the Gryffindor's. Harry whacked Ron on the side of his head before he turned to Draco who already had a smirk on his face.

'Walk.' Harry mumbled to Draco. The boys took off at a steady pace in an uncomfortable silence. Harry was trying to think of something to say to break the awkwardness for the two boys, but Draco beat him to it.

'So, have you done the homework for Snape?'

'We had homework for Snape?'

'Oh, Christ Potter, yes we had homework for Snape!' Draco sounded exasperated but when Harry looked at him he could see the smile on his face regardless. 'Well come on golden boy, let's start with the homework, shall we?' Harry groaned at the name 'golden boy' but decided not to say anything, if Draco was going to help him with his homework then Harry wasn't going to piss him off.

The boys found a small table close to the back of the library and got to work, they worked for about 30 minutes in quiet, with Draco checking over his shoulder to see if what he was writing was a fact instead of something Harry had just made up. A lot of it, Harry just made up – which was fun for Harry because it was making Draco frustrated.

'Really Harry? Really? Do you think what you've written is actually true?' Draco had now snatched Harty's parchment from him and started scribbling out line after line of Harry's work.

'Honestly Draco, no I don't, I just wanted to see how far I could take it before you threw a fit. You lasted longer than I thought you would.' Harry was laughing at Draco who was once again scowling at him.

'Golden boy – take this seriously.' Draco murmured back but began laughing too. Both boys were laughing for a while before the librarian came and told them to be quiet. While wiping the tears away, Harry's eyes wandered over to the still laughing blond, it made him happy to see Draco still so relaxed and at ease. He couldn't remember the last time he had seen him like this and he liked it.

'Okay, okay – change that last part to this then write your conclusion and you have a got a pretty solid essay.' Draco handed back Harry is essay and he got to work. It took Harry another 15 minutes to finish off his essay and once Draco was finally happy with it the boys moved on to studying different potion ingredients together. Harry couldn't believe how easy everything was going with Draco. There was no awkwardness, no bickering between them it was nice and calm. Harry thought it was only right to rock the boat – just a little bit.

'I have a question.' Harry shut the book that Draco was reading so he would look up at Harry.

'Hit me.'

'Why did you set this up?' Draco's eyes widened a little bit then gave a small smile to Harry.

'Honestly? I'm not really sure, the words came out of my mouth and didn't really realise what I'd said until you agreed and then it was too late to back out ha-ha.' Harry's face fell feeling disappointed that Draco didn't want to spend time with him. Draco realised what Harry must have thought to that statement so quickly added 'not that I'm not glad we're doing this. I would have asked you to do this eventually – I just didn't think that you would fuck up potions so soon.' Draco nudged Harry with his shoulder to get Harry's attention and received a small laugh in return. 'Don't start stropping at me, Potter. I've had an enjoyable evening – you're not allowed to ruin it.'

'Not ruining it! I swear, but I owe you one – Hermione isn't this fun with revision.' At that, Draco beamed he started playing with his hair for the hundredth time and Harry sighed and grabbed Draco's arm.

'Stop playing with your hair, it looks nice the way you styled it originally okay?' Once Harry had realised what he had done, he dropped Draco's arm quickly and looked down at his book feeling his face redden. The silence was prominent but neither boys spoke for a while until Draco muttered something that was inaudible to Harry.

'What?' Harry looked at Draco again – confident that his face had returned to its normal colour.

'I said, maybe you could help me with defense against the dark arts sometime if you think you owe me anyway. You don't have to, but I am struggling slightly – don't tell anyone I said that.' When he saw that Harry was grinning he shoved his arm playfully.

'Sure Draco, that sounds good to me, are you free tomorrow night?' The blond wizard nodded slightly and Harry grinned. 'Brilliant, is it the practical or theory you're struggling with? Because I'd be happy to go over whatever you need.'

Draco sighed 'the practical, I just panic for some reason and think I'm going to mess it up.' He said in a small voice and was no longer looking at Harry and he could tell the boy had turned pink with embarrassment.

'Okay, well meet me in the room of requirement at 9 tomorrow – I have Quidditch practice tomorrow but can meet you afterward. If that's cool with you?' Draco nodded and went back to reading his potions book. The boys studied for another hour or so chatting about nothing important all while Draco was correcting Harry's notes.

'How are you copying notes from a textbook wrong Harry?'

'Because I'm bored and annoying you, is entertaining me.' Draco gave Harry a fake laugh and stuck his tongue out at him, which in turn made Harry laugh too. Harry checked his watch and couldn't believe how much time the boys had spent together. 'Woah 11:30, we better pack up.' The boys got up grudgingly and started to pack away all their books and parchment and headed towards the front of the library. Once they stepped out from the library the boys stared at each other and smiled.

'Well, I've gotta go this way.' Draco said, pointing down the hall.

'And I've gotta go this way.' Harry pointed the opposite direction to Draco. 'Thanks again for today Draco.' The boys turned away from each other and went their separate directions.

'Potter!' Harry spun back around to look at Draco.

'I'm glad you like my hair.' Before Harry could answer Draco had turned and walked away.


End file.
